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Never one to stay out of the limelight for too long, fashion design and Instagram influencer Kanye West made headlines earlier this week when he decided to wear a shirt that said “White Lives Matter” to his YZY show at Paris Fashion Week.
Then, doubling down on the fashion statement, the 45-year-old father-of-four took to Instagram to somewhat explain his motivation to wear the shirt as he said “everyone knows Black Lives Matter is a scam” and it’s “over now.”
While many on the internet are predictably up-in-arms about the shirt, at least one influential rapper seems to have Kanye’s back as Diddy went on The Breakfast Club this week to vaguely defend West by saying he’s a “free thinker.”
Diddy stands by Kanye West and his ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt, says the 45-year-old rapper and designer is a ‘free thinker’
“My boy is a super, super, super free thinker,” Diddy said. “And a lot of times, what he means is, like, misconstrued, you know what I’m saying?”
The media mogul added that people “don’t have to condemn Kanye or cancel him,” but called the shirts “very tone-deaf.” “I understand white lives do matter, but it’s not that,” Diddy said. “[‘Black Lives Matter’] was our slogan. That wasn’t our slogan to go share with nobody else … Because right now, we’re the ones that are dying, that are incarcerated, that are left in poverty. You have to be unapologetically black and love your people and love your tribe first.” [The Breakfast Club via PageSix]
Because this is what we’ve come to expect from Kanye, it’s only a matter of time until this mini-controversy gets swept under the rug while everyone freaks out about his next public attention-seeking stunt. That, ultimately, is what Kanye has become these days: an endless cycle of shock value.